The Magenta Spire

The Magenta Spire is a 16-level partial conversion and megawad for MBF-compatible source ports divided into two episodes. It was released by Cole Bryden (thelamp) in September 2022 and features numerous gameplay changes via an internal DeHackEd lump and utilizes many MBF features. These include new monsters, tweaked weapons, higher health and armor caps, and changes to powerups. In addition to these gameplay changes, Bryden made custom PLAYPAL and COLORMAP lumps. Magenta Spire also features many new textures and sprites from various sources. The level design is abstract, with very colorful visuals.

It was finally uploaded to the idgames archive on November 20, 2022, and received one of that year's Cacowards.

Story
The events of the Magenta Spire take place alongside those of The Ultimate Doom: "A high ranking UAC communications technician [who] travels to a far-remote research base to investigate mysterious untraceable signals. Upon entering orbit your craft experiences massive guidance system failures. After narrowly avoiding disaster you land safely--but what could have caused such sudden failure? You proceed into the facility to investigate."

- Story

The story is expounded upon through in-game text provided by the internal DeHackEd and UMAPINFO lumps.

Levels
Episode I: Technical Difficulties Episode II: The Magenta Spire
 * (secret exit to MAP31)
 * (secret exit to MAP31)
 * (secret exit to MAP31)
 * (secret exit to MAP31)
 * (secret exit to MAP31)

Soundtrack

 * MAP01: "The End of Doom" by Bobby Prince
 * MAP02: "The Search" by David Shaw (from Icarus: Alien Vanguard)
 * MAP03: "Dark Halls" by Bobby Prince
 * MAP04: "Stomp" by Jeremy Doyle (from Icarus: Alien Vanguard)
 * MAP05: "The Demons from Adrian's Pen" by Bobby Prince
 * MAP06: "Melting" by Jeremy Doyle (from Icarus: Alien Vanguard)
 * MAP07: "On the Hunt" by Bobby Prince and "Into the Beast's Belly" by L.A. Sieben (from TNT: Evilution)
 * MAP08: "AimShootKill" by Tom Mustaine (from TNT: Evilution)
 * MAP31: "Sweaty Mancubus Armpits" by Metabolist (from Hell Revealed II)
 * MAP09: "Ripsnort" by Jeremy Doyle (from Icarus: Alien Vanguard)
 * MAP10: "Slow Evil II" by Tom Mustaine (from Icarus: Alien Vanguard)
 * MAP11: "Sweet Little Dead Bunny" by Bobby Prince and "Dreadnaught" by Mark Klem (from Memento Mori)
 * MAP12: "Storage Facility" by Andrew Benon (from Chex Quest)
 * MAP13: "Shipwrecked" (from ), MIDI rendition of "Moon/Mars: Sukarabe Fight 3" (from ) and "Galaxy" by Mark Klem (from Memento Mori)
 * MAP14: untitled track by Jonathan El-Bizri (from Icarus: Alien Vanguard (MAP18))
 * MAP15: "Gresta" by Tom Mustaine (from Icarus: Alien Vanguard)


 * Title screen: "Slow Evil II" by Tom Mustaine (from Icarus: Alien Vanguard)
 * Intermission: "Arboretum" by Andrew Benon (from Chex Quest)
 * Text screen: "Oww!" by Lee Jackson (from Rise of the Triad)

Custom monsters

 * Big imp
 * The big imp replaces Doom's standard imp and utilizes sprites from Realm667. It has a speed of 9 and has 200 health. The main attack is a volley of fireballs. Its appearance is very similar to that of a baron of Hell, though its fireballs are red and it has different coloration.


 * Flying imp
 * The flying imp replaces the spectre. It functions similar to a cacodemon in that it flies, hurls fireballs, and attempts to close in on the player. The health was edited to 48 and the speed to 10. In appearance, the flying imp looks like an imp with gargoyle wings.


 * Hell squire
 * Though the size of an imp, the Hell squire packs a much meaner punch. It replaces the Hell knight and has the same attack. To compensate, its health has been lowered to 48. The Hell squire looks like an imp with the skin tone of a baron and a head shaped like that on the Doom cover art.


 * Dead pain elemental
 * The dead pain elemental replaces Commander Keen and is one of the first monsters seen. It is a recolored corpse pile from the Doom alpha. When "killed", it will spawn lost souls. This makes them an occupational hazard similar to barrels, in that they do not directly kill the player, but can bring harm when interacted with.


 * Dog
 * This grey dog simply barks and runs around. It is grey and unkillable, possibly a phantom.


 * Friendly marine
 * These UAC recruits replace the Wolfenstein SS. They drop a backpack upon death and have 150 health.

New weapons

 * Spiked knuckles
 * These replace the fists with spiked brass knuckles. The only non-cosmetic change is the speed. The spiked knuckles are two frames faster.


 * Winchester Yellowboy
 * The Winchester Yellowboy replaces the shotgun. The new sprites indicate it to be lever action. Its only other change is a higher fire rate.


 * Plasma gun
 * Cosmetically unchanged, the plasma gun now features higher damage and invisible projectiles.

Gameplay changes

 * The soulsphere only charges health 80%.
 * Health and armor now go up to 400%.
 * The lost soul is transparent and has 56 health.
 * The baron of Hell has new winged sprites and 1200 health. It has also been made bigger and lighter.
 * The arch-vile has 1000 health and now has the ability to resurrect themselves. They also drop Berserk when resurrected.
 * The cyberdemon has 2750 health and an explosive pain state.

Built-in demos
This WAD features three built-in demos. All require Doom II with an MBF21-compatible source port to view them. The demo levels are: